Safety - at the heart of all our thinking

The Integral Safety Concept from Mercedes-Benz divides vehicle safety into four phases:

Virtually no other area inspires the Mercedes-Benz engineers to produce such consistently impressive results as much as research into new safety technologies. The first important safety milestone was reached back in the 1950s with the development of the passenger safety cell, invented by Béla Barényi. Today it is just one of many components of the Integral Safety Concept which edges Mercedes-Benz vehicles ever closer to our vision of accident-free driving.

Equipment availability depends on the engine and configuration selected. You will find details in the equipment information for each model.

More detailed information:

Phase 1: safe driving

The majority of accidents start long before the actual collision: with a lapse in concentration, poor visibility or hazards which cannot be anticipated. That's why the Mercedes-Benz safety concept employs a range of measures to support safe driving in everyday operation and to help you bring critical situations under control.

Phase 3: in an accident

Cars from Mercedes-Benz have a host of safety systems to prevent accidents. Should the worst come to the worst, however, a number of occupant safety measures are activated. They include protection for the vehicle occupants as well as for other road users.

Phase 4: after an accident

To reduce consequential damage after an accident and support the work of the rescue services, a number of different actions are initiated, depending on the type and severity of the impact registered by the system:

Best possible protection: the engine can be turned off automatically and the fuel supply can be cut off.

Eye-catching lighting: hazard and emergency interior lights can activate automatically to lower the risk of accidents and help locate the car.

Automatic ventilation: if an airbag is deployed, the power windows are lowered automatically.

Easy opening: after an accident the doors are unlocked automatically to make it easier for the occupants or rescue workers to open the doors.

Measures to aid rescue: integral crash joints between the wing and the door can make opening the doors after a frontal collision easier.

Helpful connection: In the event of an accident the Mercedes-Benz emergency call system can help to speed up the arrival of the rescuers at the accident scene decisively. The data is transferred via a mobile connection provided by a communications module with its own SIM card. The emergency call is therefore independent of the operational readiness of a mobile phone that might have been damaged or whose battery may be discharged.

Every second counts when it comes to occupant rescue after an accident. That's why Daimler has devised the rescue sticker, a small but effective innovation that gives emergency services immediate access to safety-relevant vehicle-specific design details at the scene of the accident. The QR code stickers are affixed to the vehicle's fuel tank cap and the B-pillar on the opposite side. They can easily be retrofitted and are part of the series specification for all new vehicles. In an emergency, rescue services personnel can scan the QR code with a smartphone or tablet PC to rapidly and reliably access the appropriate rescue card, which will assist them in their work.[1].

Learn more about the emergency sticker

Mercedes-Benz has also published multilingual rescue guidelines (accessible worldwide on the internet) as a source of information for rescue services.